1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an injectable composition for local administration comprising hydroxychloroquine as an active ingredient, in which the composition is to be injected directly into cancer cells to exhibit anticancer effects.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, tumors are diseases in which abnormal cells continuously proliferate to interfere with the function of normal cells. Tumors are classified according to histopathological and clinical criteria into malignant tumors and benign tumors, and the so-called cancer belongs to malignant tumors.
Cancer is the first leading cause of death in Korea and is also a leading cause of death worldwide. The cause of development of cancer or a method for treatment of cancer has not yet been elucidated. Cancer therapeutic agents that have been developed to date show problems associated with fatal side effects, expression of drug resistance, destruction of lymphocytes and bone marrow, etc., when they are clinically used. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop novel anticancer agents that exhibit cytoxic activity without influencing normal cells.
Up to now, about 270 kinds of cancer have been found to occur in the human body. Cell lines reported to be used in research of these kinds of cancer include Sarcoma-180 cells, melanoma cells, adenoma cells, adeno-carcinoma cells, Ehrlich ascites tumor cells and Walker carcinoma cells. Among these cells, Sarcoma-180 is a tumor cell line derived from an axillary carcinoma of a White male mouse, and it is known that Sarcoma-180 can be subcultured in ascites to exist in both the solid and ascites forms and has no species specificity when it is transplanted.
Meanwhile, hydroxychloroquine is currently being used for the prevention and treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, discoid and systemic lupus erythematosus, photosensitive skin diseases, and malaria. Recently, studies on hydroxychloroquine for the suppression of renal injury and the safe resection of glioma have been reported.
Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0390332 discloses an anticancer composition which allows an anticancer agent such as doxorubicin or cisplatin to be co-administered with hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, primaquine or the like, which is frequently used as an anti-malaria agent, thereby reducing the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) of the anticancer agent and inhibiting the drug resistance of cancer cells caused by the anticancer agent. Herein, the anti-malaria agent such as hydroxychloroquine is used as an adjuvant to inhibit the resistance of cancer cells against the anticancer agent so as to increase the anticancer effect of the anticancer agent, and the anticancer agent exhibits its effects by systemic administration via various routes such as oral and parenteral routes.
Until now, it has not been known that hydroxychloroquine has an anticancer effect. Thus, an anticancer agent based on hydroxychloroquine has not yet been reported.